Golden Playhem.

Hello TL

There was a silence from my side, no analysis of Playhems, no Playhems even. It was caused mostly by the fact that my mousepad stopped liking my mouse so I had to buy new one. My last post informed that I've been promoted to Gold. What does it mean in regard to my blog? That I'm going to compete in Gold/Plat Playhem dailies, woohoo! :D Probably more challenging opponents, but who knows, I was already playing versus Plats before my promotion.

My first Playhem in Gold went like that:
Ro64 - TvP (not sure if P) vs eXeProfiX on MLG Entombed Valley - no show
Ro32 - TvT vs Matthecruel on NASL TPW Artifice - my first win on that map :D
Ro16 - TvR (T) vs Lari on ESV Ohana RE - first time on this map, first win
Ro8 - TvP vs DrNo on ESV Cloud Kingdom and TalDarim Altar LE - he 2-0'd me unfortunately

I'm not going to analyze every game, because I'm not in the mood and will probably never again be in mood to analyze that much at once. This means I will analyze only those games I feel need to be done for various reasons - good game for me, game I've lost while I should've won and all that stuff.

Let's start with TvT vs Matthecruel on NASL TPW Artifice.
My winrates (on ladder) are for: vP above 60%, vZ above 70% and BELOW 35% vT. I don't like to lose versus my own mind games, but I wasn't confident going into that game. I was experimenting with many openings from helion drop + marine at the front, banshees and even blue flame opening. I didn't liked ThorZaiN's opening at first, but I was looking for something I can copy easily and wrote it in Notepad. Yes, that was my first time playing that opening.

I scouted him in cross positions so I was relieved that counter attacks wouldn't be that fast. Also any tank movement would be slow through whole map. He had one gas so nothing special, but he had a TechLab. At that time I didn't catch that thing up, but later...

I pulled SCVs to kill those Reapers. I know, it's not the best idea ever, but at least he had to micro them. He killed 5 SCVs and was 8 ahead. I knew I'm not in bad spot, because I had earlier CC so even with my bad SCV production I was able to double MULE

I scanned him around 8 minute mark and saw CC still in his base, tank and Starport still in the building process. My +1/stim were already in production.

Stim done, +1 done, Medivacs done, time to move out! 29 Marines and 2 Medivacs, not bad. I was greeted by Missle Turrets shooting my Medivacs, Tanks shelling on my Marines and Marines shooting everything, so I just moved a little back and waited for reinforcements. I sieged from the side so he had to move his defensive line and againm pulled back after seeing I can't do anything.
I decided to drop, but Viking saw my Medivac. I unloaded and saved drop with Medivac in red and decided to back off and attack his 3rd.

My Marines were killed by his concave and tank shelling so I sieged near my 3rd to defend, because I was sure he will counter.

I'm not sure if his decision to attack into that line directly was good, at least he could've waited for +2.
Seconds before his push I loaded one Medivac and flew to his 3rd and killed 8 SCVs.

When my army arrived near his 3rd I sieged up over XelNaga Watchtower and sent my Marine Medivac army to cut out reinforcements heading to defend his expansion. In his main I destroyed TechLab on Factory to prevent some Tank production and tried to focus on Reactors. Eventually I've lost my forces in his main, but more were coming.
I've unsieged everything and a-moved to his main. I should've sieged near cliff and get high ground vision with Vikings, but it was already over.

I was so happy after this game: first time tried this opening and it went really great. I was siegeing between his expos so he couldn't defend with his whole army, I dropped (once, but still), I knew when to pull back etc. On the other hand, I could've destroyed his 3rd, while marching into his main and I was behind in upgrades, but win is a win, right?

Second game I'm going to analyze is TvP vs DrNo on ESV Cloud Kingdom.
It was first game of Bo3 so I wasn't nervous, because I can come back after losing once. I decided to 2rax, because I like being aggressive and gasless expand is much more defensive until Medivacs and I wanted to see how does he play.

In his base I saw one gas, so at least I was able to eliminate DT rush and other gas heavy builds. One of my SCVs was on patrol command to check for hidden expos, but was killed by Stalker and Zealot so I knew he was trying to get map control. He tried to walk into my natural and was attacked by Marauder, unfortunatelly without Concussive Shell

I marched into his natural, killed Sentry and Zealot, picked off Pylon and he gathered some army and pushed me back home. He attacked my natural again, but was pushed back. My Medivas were soon to be done, stim at about 50%.

Time to move out with Medivacs!
I went to his potential 3rd, but found nothing, but his natural

Some Immortals, Zealots and Sentry. His Stalkers were probably waiting for drop in his main. He pulled probes and pushed me back. I loaded 2 Medivacs in Watchtower vision, cleared it and flew from another side. I went for Probes, but saw Colossus Den, but was unable to destroy it, his army was back home. I loaded again and tried to do something in his natural. Workers killed tab shows 29:1 for me! I was feeling I've killed much, but not that much! My 3rd was done, just morph it to OC and get to the low ground, I'm ahead!

What is this? I was sure that 2 Colossi are no match for my army, even with only 2 Vikings. He dropped some Zealots in my main mineral line, but I decided that with 3rd OC I can sacrifice some SCVs and focus on defending from his main attack.
But... my 2 Vikings were sent to do something with Warp Prism and other 2 were just chilling over my natural. My bio was decimated and he proceeded to march into my nat. GG

I've lost game I should've won (in my opinion). I think that his Immortals helped him much in killing my Marauders. Those Vikings are just my miscontrol, nothing to add. On the other hand, I've done so much with my drops it was unbelivable that he was able to kill me. At least I can blame my loss on "he was Plat, I'm in Gold" :D I'm not sure what I could've done better in this game.

Replays here.

In the second game I was demotivated by losing game 1 and just lost.
No matter what, I'm pretty fine with my play in this Playhem, I've learned something and shown myself that I'm able to fight Plat players for real (ladder is not real, they are much worse).

After that Playhem I played some ladder and won decisively and again came to conclusion that Playhem Gold > Ladder Gold. Also I'm thinking about playing in some more tournaments, but not in Playhem. Any ideas? I know there are Go4SC2 on ESL, there is SCVrush, but are there other tournaments? They can be open bracket, losing to Masters/GM might push me to the limits

Thank You for reading, as always feedback is appreciated

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